Cassidy Hutchinson transcript details efforts to downplay her Jan. 6 testimony
Newly released transcripts from the House Jan. 6 committee’s interviews with star witness Cassidy Hutchinson detail the efforts by what she referred to as “Trump world” to diminish the impact of her testimony and withhold information from investigators.
The transcript details Hutchinson’s fraught journey in securing legal counsel after being subpoenaed by the panel in February. It details what pushed her to switch attorneys, a change that led her to be more forthcoming with the panel in her testimony.
It also provides new information on efforts to contact her before her testimony that members of the panel publicly said they believed was witness intimidation.
The two September transcripts came well after Hutchinson, an aide to both White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former President Trump, offered explosive testimony about Trump’s efforts to reach the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 after speaking to a heavily armed crowd of supporters.
Hutchinson described an early meeting with her first lawyer Stefan Passantino, who she said declined to tell her up front who was paying to secure him on her behalf.
Hutchinson also said Passantino rebuffed her efforts to review her calendar and told the 26-year-old they would need to downplay her role at the White House – a line of arguments that would be echoed in subsequent GOP attacks on Hutchinson’s highly critical public testimony of Trump.
“Look we want to get you in, get you out. We’re going to downplay your role. You were a secretary. You had an administrative role,” Hutchinson said Passantino told her, according to the transcript.
“The less you remember, the better,” Hutchinson said Passantino told her.
Passantino has reportedly taken a leave of absence from his firm and could not immediately be reached for comment.
Hutchinson’s testimony also says Passantino encouraged her to not tell a second-hand story she had heard about Trump lunging at his security detail and grabbing for the steering wheel after being told he could not join his supporters at the Capitol.
Passantino told her that was former Secret Service agent and White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato’s story to tell. Hutchinson had initially heard the story from Ornato, she told the Jan. 6 panel in one of the most stunning moments of her summer testimony.
“No, no, no, no, no. We don’t want to go there. We don’t want to talk about that,” Hutchinson said Passantino told her, according to the transcript.
At one point during her first round of depositions with the committee, Passantino encouraged her to say she didn’t recall entire events even if she was struggling to remember small details, Hutchinson states in the testimony released by the panel.
“I don’t want you to perjure yourself, but ‘I don’t recall’ isn’t perjury. They don’t know what you can and can’t recall,” Hutchinson said Passantino told her.
Hutchinson also describes the anxiety she felt in taking Passantino’s services pro bono, relaying how she explained to her mother why she was not relieved to be getting free legal advice through the Trump network.
“I’m f**cked,” she told her mother. “I am completely indebted to these people….They will ruin my life, Mom, if I do anything they don’t want me to do.”
She would go on to explain to the committee, “once you are looped in, especially financially with them, there’s no turning back,” according to the transcript.
Hutchinson says a Meadows aide, Ben Williamson, called her before her testimony, telling Hutchinson that Meadows “knows you’re loyal and knows you’ll do the right thing tomorrow and that you’re going to protect him and the boss,” according to the testimony released by the panel.
It is this call that members of the panel suggested publicly, without naming Williamson, could have been witness intimidation.
“I think most Americans know that attempting to influence witnesses to testify untruthfully presents very serious concerns,” panel Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said shortly after showing a portion of Hutchinson’s testimony about her call with Williamson.
Williamson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Source: TEST FEED1
